What Happened To The Weekend?

This weekend has just flown by. I mean, it's already Sunday. Where did it go?

Well for starters, the weather has just plain sucked eggs. Being holed up in the house with two kids, no husband, inclement weather and some questionable "outsiders" sneaking around our neighborhood has pretty much made me a hermit crab for the weekend.

Let me dissect that last paragraph for you...

Mark has been out of town at his big "race" weekend (read: Thursday through Monday) so I've been single parenting it, there has been a horrible outbreak of tornados all over the Deep South, and our general vicinity of town has been a hotbed of activity amongst the liars, cheaters and thieves that feel "entitled" to things belonging to others. Needless to say, we've been deadbolted inside with the alarm on since Friday.

But things are looking up! It's a beautiful, sun-shiny Sunday morning and if my children will speed things up we might actually make it to church on time. I can't wait to get there, listen to our awesome Pastor and belt out sing a few of my favorite songs. Then off to lunch we'll go. We are also heading to MeeMee's house this afternoon to celebrate Aunt Wendy's birthday just a few weeks late.

Hope y'all have a fabulous remainder of the weekend!

What are YOU doing today?

Sing With Me Now...Green Acres Is The Place To Be

Start with 5 cubic yards of good topsoil...

Bribe a couple of helpers with shovels...

Toss in 8 cubic yards peat moss & a strong hubby with a tiller...

Plug in lots of baby plants & seedlings and VOILA...

Green Acres {my baby} is born!

Note: This was mid-March. Upcoming progression pictures are UNBELIEVABLE!

Wordless Wednesday - JUMP!

Make sure you JUMP on over to Life Down Our Lane to see what other pictures people are not talking about!

Happy Birthday To...Who (All)?!

March has always been an interesting month as far as celebrations go.

First, it marks the long awaited 1st day of Spring each year. Can I hear a Hallelujah?! Second, I'm a March birthday girl. Then rolling in to third place, just one day later, Mark takes his spot as a March birthday boy. And we have various other friends with important days this month as well.

This year we have expanded our two-day-birthday-stretch to a total of 3 days in a row of birthdays at our house. If you know us at all, then you know that we only have 2 children and both of their birthdays are in December (of all months) and just 6 calendar days apart. So how in the world have we come up with 3 birthdays in March then?

Here's a small hint...



Confused yet? No, we did not adopt a new baby. Well, that's not entirely true. We did adopt and he was a baby when we got him. Sort of. Well, a furry one, at least.

Not many of you (unless you follow me on Twitter, maybe) know that our 11 1/2 year old (1st born child, as she was known) dog, Abbey, finally had to be put down last October. It. was. HORRIBLE. Plain and simple. There is no other description and I really don't even want to talk about it any further.

I had said from that day on that we would never have another dog. I simply could not take all of the pain all over again. However, back in January, quite out of the blue, our new-ish next door neighbor called me while I was at work. I just knew something was bad wrong. She's a teacher also so we most often communicate through text messages during the work day.

To make a long story short, she had decided that her puppy really needed & deserved more than she could give him at this point in time...a family with lots of time, love and attention to give. Enter our family. Katie is a Girl-On-The-Go and we're pretty much homebodies. So we secretly gave Harley a test drive one weekend under the guise of babysitting him while Katie was out of town. It all went fine so he came to live with us a couple of weeks later.

Of course, one of the funny things was that his birthday was the day before mine. Plus, he's just SO stinkin' cute! See...

Sorry for the super blurry picture. It was from my phone.

He is a bundle of raw energy, if nothing else. He keeps us laughing and on our toes at all times. But one thing we have learned in the last couple of months is that this boy needs to really buckle down and learn some manners. Now that things are settling down and the weather is improving, he is soon to be enrolled in Doggie Boot Camp to hone the skills I know he must surely possess. And I can tell ya, it will not come soon enough!

Oh yeah, today's my birthday and tomorrow is Mark's. This post turned out to be all about Harley, didn't it. Oh well, he's really cute. And since I know you will all ask, he is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. He'll weigh 15 pounds max and, no, we did not name him. He came to us fully equipped with the personalized sign above, monogrammed blankets, Christmas stocking, etc so there was no changing it. He's our little Harley-man.

I do currently have a poll on Twitter taking guesses as to which birthday this is for me. I'll also entertain those guesses in the comments here so take your best shot! If you know my true age, don't give it away for everyone else...I need a good laugh and maybe even a little ego boost.

Wordless Wednesday~Dandelions

A SURE sign that Spring has sprung...

Make sure you HOP on over to the Shipmans and check out other Wordless Wednesday photos!

Wordless Wednesday

Missing our Disney friends...

This is Ellis and her new friend, Grace, on our last night in Disney World back in February. You can visit Grace's family's blog here as well as check out other Wordless Wednesday posts linked there.

Wordless Wednesday

This gives new meaning to your child saying,

"Mom, I can't come inside
yet. I'm kinda tied up right now!"

And no, she did not tie herself to the ball swing. It was her sister who did the dirty work!

The Great {Parental} Divide ~ But Beware: This Involves Vomit

It happens.

In the middle of the night.

Awakened from a deep sleep and catapulted into immediate cleanup and recovery mode.

Our poor Ellis had complained of a stomach ache before bed last night and we assumed it was a stall tactic. The huge smile on her face when she came back downstairs was the determining factor. We sent her back to bed and off to sleep she went. No more complaining. Not another peep.

That is until 1:30am when I was jolted awake by what sounded like a wet splat on Mark's side of the bed. I immediately knew who and what had arrived. Being a mother, I'm pretty perceptive like that. Nothing good comes from one of my children going to Daddy's side of the bed. That just means the situation is emergent and they can't make it all the way around to my side!

Anyway, I leap out of bed and across my room to the bathroom and flip the light on. I really don't remember my feet even hitting the floor. Now being able to actually see where she was, I ran and grabbed Ellis and got her back to the bathroom then threw Mark the bathmat right off the floor.

As I'm trying to calm Ellis, hold all of her hair out of her face, {insert more vomiting here}, undress her and clean her up, Mark wipes up the "little spot" (his words, not mine) from his side of the bed (Thank goodness for hardwood floors!) and returns to bed. WHAT?

I strip Ellis to naked and she gets in our bed with Mark. Why put on more pajamas only to have to strip them off again next time? I proceed to sanitize the bathroom and bedside before going to the laundry room to start the washer. On the way out the bedroom door Mark tells me he "just threw the cleanup towel on the floor outside the laundry room door." OKAY... In or even ON the washer would've been my pick but whatever. I toss her jammies and the washcloths I had cleaned her and the bathroom up with into the washer and grab the bathmat off the floor.

The mat had NOT been folded up so as to contain said vomit. So needless to say I had to pull out the cleaner a.g.a.i.n for "Cleanup on Aisle 12!" Grrr.

We all settle down and Mark immediately goes right back to sleep. Not me. I know better. Remember, I'm the Mama. We did indeed have one more episode before I decide to just make her a pallet of towels and blankets on the bathroom floor. She was kinda of excited about that whole aspect so who am I to judge. Mark did wake up during the 2nd episode only to say that he'd never been sleeping at all. Oh My Gosh! I thought I would come u.n.g.l.u.e.d.

I was unable to go to sleep the remainder of the morning except for a couple of catnaps. I just lay in bed listening to Mark snore and watching Ellis move around on her pallet under a mound of blankets. Fortunately, she never got sick again. However, I felt awfully queasy myself and kept thinking about getting it myself. Because if I get sick, who is going to take care of everything? Well, Mark will, of course, but you know what I mean... there will be vomit-y towels lounging on my floors while he sleeps.

What is it with men?

So there you have it. The Great Divide at my house with a vomiting child.

Disclaimer: This was all written as seen through my eyes. I'm sure Mark might beg to differ. But only that he was actually awake. Which he most certainly was not. There's no way he can dispute the fact that he did not fold up the towel which resulted in me having to decontaminate yet another floor.

A Fabulous Combination~ And A Total Tease

There is SO much more to come! :-)

Turkey Fry~By The Numbers

I know, I know. It's been waayyyy too long! Well, pick your jaw up off the floor and catch your breath then read on about our Annual Turkey Fry (yes, we are a partying bunch in our neighborhood) folks.

1 gorgeous, yet cool, afternoon
3 deep frying "rigs"
10 gallons peanut oil boiling
1 pair of new, specialized, deep frying gloves bought
1 new Bic long lighter, aka, "flame thrower"
2 deep frying thermometers
1 deep frying thermometer then thrown away
24 great, fun loving, adult friends
14 running, screaming, giggling, playing, ravenous kids
6 whole turkeys
3 turkey breasts (cheaters!)
3 pounds Tator tots
1 pound sweet potato fries
30 corndogs
60 mini corndog bites
2 pounds fried cheese sticks
2 pounds chicken fingers
2 turkey livers, {BLECH!}
1 entire package of Oreos battered and deep fried
1 Peanut Butter Crunch Moonpie battered and deep fried
1 entire package of Oreos eaten plain
10 pounds (out of this world delicious) shrimp
1 large tray of fresh veggie "chips" & Jalapeno Ranch dip
1 plate marinated tomato & mozzarella skewers
1 large bowl of Cashew Coleslaw
3 boxes of kids drinks
2 rolls paper towels
50 paper plates along with untold numbers of forks
1 ginormous city trashcan now o.v.e.r.f.l.o.w.i.n.g.
2 many adults beverages to count (well, not really)
2 much fun to describe
2 exhausted little girls
1 overworked Daddy
1 tired but grateful Mommy



Happy Thanksgiving everyone!